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Bruce Katzman was bitten by the bug for acting at age five-and-a-half when he performed as The Dummy on the knee of his 13-year old eldest brother, Mark (The Ventriloquist), in a talent show at Camp Baco, a summer camp in the Adirondacks' town of Minerva, NY. In a professional career of over 40 years, he has performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, in regional theatre and in Film and Television.
Bruce was born in New York City, the third of four children, to Nathan and Anita Katzman and, until age 14, he grew up in the Westchester suburb of New Rochelle. He found a home in the theatre, performing in school Drama Clubs and Community Theatre productions throughout his youth. During Junior High School, Bruce attended the very first training school of the Roundabout Theatre in New York City, newly founded by Gene Feist, in the basement of a supermarket at 26th St. and Sixth Ave.
After moving to Sarasota, Florida in 1966, Bruce began a many-year association with the Asolo Theatre, a leading regional theatre. It provided a further professional training ground and he did many plays as an apprentice and as an intern with the company. College years brought him back north again, to Ithaca College, which he graduated from in 1973. (Among notable graduates of IC that year was Bob Iger, current Chairman of the Walt Disney Company). A summer in NYC in the early '70's introduced Bruce to the HB Studio and the influence of teachers such as Bill Hickey and Aaron Frankel and the work of Uta Hagen.
In 1974, Bruce moved to San Francisco and was hired by Sankowich-Golyn as a cast-member of their long-running production of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST at the Little Fox Theatre. The year after the production closed, he was accepted into the prestigious training program at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), still under the direction of Bill Ball. In 1977 he moved to Los Angeles, where he earned his SAG card in the TV series BILLY LIAR (aka/ BILLY), which featured Steve Guttenberg in his first starring role. Other TV productions from that period include EIGHT IS ENOUGH and LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE.
During the late '70s, Bruce met Stella Adler in Los Angeles and began studies with her in her summer conservatories in Hollywood. In 1980, he followed her to NYC to become a full-time student at the Stella Adler Studio. In 1984, following a summer program with the British-American Drama Academy (BADA) in Oxford, England, Bruce came to the attention of Earle Gister, Chairman of the Acting Department of the Yale School of Drama. Earle invited Bruce to audition for Yale and he was accepted into the world-famous training program the following year, graduating with his MFA in 1988.
Among his numerous stage credits in NY, highlights include his Broadway debut as a member of Tony Randall's inaugural company of the National Actor's Theatre at the Belasco Theatre (other actors that season included Martin Sheen, Lynn Redgrave, Paxton Whitehead and Michael York) and as a member of the award-winning revival of CABARET, selected by Rob Marshall as the stand-by for Ron Rivkin as Herr Schultz.
In addition to acting, Bruce has been a teacher of acting for over 25 years, specializing in the plays of Anton Chekhov and Shakespeare, teaching at Yale School of Drama, Princeton, Williams College, Scranton University, Circle Rep (NYC), Stella Adler Studio in NY (NYU track) and The Actors Center (of NYC), as well as internationally in Denmark, in Oxford, England and in Buenos Aires. He currently teaches at the Stella Adler Academy-LA in Hollywood.
Bruce is married to Carolyn Crotty from Omaha, Nebraska, an actress.
